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U.S. Judge Finds Death Penalty
Unconstitutional Under '94 Law

NEW YORK -- A U.S. district judge struck down the federal death penalty, finding that the likelihood of the government executing innocent people under the 1994 law rendered it unconstitutional.

The decision, by Judge Jed S. Rakoff, comes on the heels of two U.S. Supreme Court opinions that narrowed the application of capital punishment by barring execution of the mentally retarded and requiring that juries, rather than judges, make essential factual findings before imposing a death sentence.